" Aloha,
NOTICE TO HAWAII COUNTY RESIDENTS, April 16, 2008

On October 2, 2006 a wealthy Kainilu businessman ate lunch at Adriana’s Mexican Food in Captain Cook, Hawaii. Happy with the food, he repeatedly complemented the owner Juanita, told her that he liked her, and even made her a business proposition. Juanita politely said she would speak to her husband about it.
The next day the wealthy man’s wife/business partner entered Adriana’s with her employee while Juanita was working alone. The wife taunted and insulted Juanita, and left. The employee listened to Juanita’s response and went outside to report what was said to the wife. Both returned. In a very angry, aggressive manner, even poking her finger towards Juanita’s face, the wife asked Juanita questions. Then the wife started making several serious threats. The wife then struck Juanita violently on the hand and came at Juanita’s face with both arms outstretched. In an impulse reaction, Juanita moved back and slapped her assailant once on the cheek. The assailant and her employee both called the police and an ambulance, while they waiting inside the restaurant. Juanita’s assailant was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. The assailant had never been a customer of Adriana’s, nor ever ordered food.
On May 26, 2007, Juanita was arrested and charged with First Degree Assault and Unlawful Imprisonment. Second Degree Assault would be shooting or stabbing someone, First Degree is worse with a 10 year prison sentence. The Prosecutor (KIMBERLY TANIYAMA- 322-2552) fraudulently received a Grand Jury Indictment against Juanita by maliciously concealing evidence and witness testimony including the Temporary Restraining Order Juanita and her family had against the wife/assailant. KIMBERLY TANIYAMA also accused the family of Juanita of threatening the wife/assailant, even though no such event ever occurred, nor even was a police report filed.
Juanita refused a plea bargain deal of Second Degree Assault, and a later plea bargain offer of Misdeameanor Assault. Circuit Court Judge Strance dismissed the fraudulent charges against Juanita because it was impossible for KIMBERLY TANIYAMA to prove her grossly exaggerated accusations.
Now KIMBERLY TANIYAMA has exercised further misconduct by re-filing charges of Misdeameanor Assault in District Court.
Are you not appalled by the disgusting abuse of authority used by the Office of the Prosecutor and KIMBERLY TANIYAMA, a publicly funded service with the purpose of protecting law abiding citizens. Juanita was and is the victim, along with her family of five children and husband.
KIMBERLY TANIYAMA is willing to waste massive amounts of time and money in an attempt to prosecute a crime victim simply because the true assailant has wealth and influence. Do you believe that this is acceptable? If you do not, please feel free to contact any of the following, or share this information with your friends. You may copy this letter.
County of Hawaii- 961-8223, Chief of Police- 961-2244, Governor Linda Lingle- 327-4953, Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona Jr.- 974-4000 ext. 60255, Senator Akaka- 935-1114, Senator Inouye- 935-0844, Congresswoman Mazie Hirono- 935-3756, Ombudsman- 974-4000 ext. 70770, Department of the Attorney General- 974-4000 ext. 61500, Department of Commerce, Consumer Protection- 974-4000 ext. 62630, Hawaii State Ethics Commission- 808-587-0460, Mayors Office- 961-8211, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney- 322-2552, 961-0466, West Hawaii Today- 329-9311, Hawaiian Island Journal- 896-3636, etc. "

" The very important thing about this "Risky Business" is that testing is due to begin. The Army's tests need to be transparent and verified by independent experts. I'm still counting on Dr. Pang to be involved. I won't trust the results unless he is. At least we are moving forward toward the truth. Lindafaye www.protecthawaii.ws "

" Nothing wrong with being biased, as long as you're making sense. The notion that Dustn Brim's "aggressive" cancer is due to his exposure to DU for a few months does not make any kind of radiological or medical sense. ~~ That being said, It's laughable that Audrey Parente passes the unbiased test. "

" I suggest that readers do a google search on "Dustin Brim" and read what Daytona Beach News Journal Investigative Reporter Audrey Parente wrote. Her non-biased interviews are documented and her interview with Dr. Johnnye Lewis at UNM can be listened to. Also her interview with Congressman Mc. Dermott among many others on all sides of the issue. "

" LOL. You get your news from a Russian propaganda rag? The same one that seriously presented this ridiculous story via a 9/11 conspiracy crackpot: "WASHINGTON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year." ~~ http://en.rian.ru/world/20070720/69340886.html ~~ The giveaway in your story is this paragraph: "Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, she also complained that many chemical plants and oil facilities had been destroyed during the two military campaigns since the 1990s, but the ecological consequences remain unclear." ~~ Ecological? What she so strangely excludes is the carcinogenic and teratological effects of such destruction. ~~ "The increase in the number of Iraqi cancer registrations may be due in part to exposure to CHEMICAL CARCINOGENS. Of relevance to war is the agent BENZENE, which has been established as an occupational cause of ACUTE MYELOID LEUKAEMIA. This is relevant on battlefields since the advent of mechanized warfare because the residues include partially burnt hydrocarbons from fuels, explosives, propellants and plastics. For the Gulf War, there is also the Kuwait oil fires to take into consideration. The retreating Iraqi forces set the Kuwait oil fields alight and the smoke generated was carried by the prevailing winds over Iraq. The types and quantities of soot formed were known to have caused lung damage and, in addition, the soot would have contained large quantities of POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS, KNOWN CARCINOGENS. It is not known where Iraqi chemical and biological weapons stockpiles were sited and whether any were blown up, but certainly chemical warfare was used in the Iraq–Iran war of 1981–88, sulphur mustard being one of the agents. The long-term effects of exposure are known to include damage to the immune system, BIRTH DEFECTS AND ELEVATED INCIDENCES OF LEUKAEMIA AND LYMPHOMA". -- Karol Sikora, cancer expert, British Journal of Radiology 2001. "

" Iraqis blame U.S. depleted uranium for surge in cancer 19:20 | 23/ 07/ 2007 CAIRO, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - Iraq's environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country. As a result of "at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing" with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year. Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, she also complained that many chemical plants and oil facilities had been destroyed during the two military campaigns since the 1990s, but the ecological consequences remain unclear. "Our ministry is fledgling, and we need international support; notably, we need laboratories to better monitor air and water contamination," she said. The first major UN research on the consequences of the use of DU on the battlefield was conducted in 2003 in the wake of NATO operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Montenegro. The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in its report after the research that DU poses little threat if spent munitions are cleared from the ground. "Health risks primarily depend on the awareness of people coming into contact with DU," UNEP writes in its 2004 brochure "Depleted Uranium Awareness." No major clean-up or public awareness campaigns have been reported in Iraq. "

" "In the first experiment about 420 kg of the DU contaminated sandy soil was resuspended in the air by 0.5 kg of Semtex explosive ......The absence of any measurable quantity of DU in the airborne dust collected by the samplers positioned at distances of 50 m and beyond from the explosion indicates that transport of resuspended DU over such distances is unlikely." ~~~ http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1164_web.pdf (page 47) ~~~ This directly disputes the notion that Moret or anyone could detect DU miles downwind with a Gamma Scout or any type of handheld Geiger counter device. Here, even with sophisticated gathering and filtering devices and an actual DU dust explosive simulation, DU was not detected to any significant degree at CLOSE range. READ THE WHOLE REPORT. (A large proportion of DU weapons were used in the Kuwait area, as I remember.) "

" DEPLETED URANIUM — FAR WORSE THAN 9/11 http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/du_02.htm by Douglas Westerman Depleted Uranium Dust — Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan. In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y., which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing more than 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over 100 million dollars. Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe. People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent (2003) conference in Japan: «Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers — one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney — he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer». «Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.». «We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait — we were accused of being Saddam supporters.» John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY. Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization’s chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report «on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust» was also deliberately suppressed. The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying: «The [US government’s] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.» At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states: «Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.» Rokke’s own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated: «When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy.» After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others «including Rokke himself» developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. «We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.» Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is «not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases.» Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases? Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. «That’s exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way.» According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. «The larger the bang» the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the “micron size” or smaller, he said. When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific: «I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people.» When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat «sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable. Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported. Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, «Doctor, is it a boy or girl?» but rather, «Doctor, is it normal?» The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on the following website Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: «Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA.» Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the «Baghdad Diaries» wrote: «Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.» «The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.» This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it’s 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was ‘aerosolized’ into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq. As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. «American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. I don’t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that.» «In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying.» By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses “scarcely human in appearance”. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific. Dr. Hardan also states: «I arranged for a delegation from Japan’s Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq.» Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn’t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done. Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure. Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have medical problems. Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law , found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty «for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,» and the «tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people.» Although this was a “Citizen’s Court” having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted. Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. «I got sick instantly in June,» said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. «My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach.» Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four “almost certainly” inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers. If so, the men — Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone — are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict. The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit’s members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month. «These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police not exposed to the heat of battle,» said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing. In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects. Dr. Durakovic’s UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained “hundreds to thousands of times” the normal levels of radiation. «This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991,» Durakovic told The Japan Times. «They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness,» Durakovic said. «They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law.» (NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC: First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!) Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU “amounts to a massive malpractice,” Dietz said in an interview. The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer an early and painful death? «Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray», said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust’s crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading. The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners. Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours. The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours. «Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,» writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. «Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood. «When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,» she wrote. «Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.» Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan. How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that “this could cause “500,000 potential deaths”. This was “a theoretical figure”, it stressed, that indicated “a significant problem”. The AEA’s calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as “very far from realistic” by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. «Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide,» he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq’s total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq. What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk. He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his health. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians? Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers. Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard’s Combat Equipment Company “A” was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage. She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military’s test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill. In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn’t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority? The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes. Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq. FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England. UMRC’s Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation. Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study’s purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before. Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months. In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. «We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination.» In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads: «The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium.» In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of “bunker buster” bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys. “A significant portion of the civilian population”? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children. The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing. According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states «The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium». Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing «in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers». There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher. The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC’s ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC’s scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC’s scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed “studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless.” The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers). Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : «I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals,» Fujita said. «As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years.» The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen’s Tribunal that “convicted” President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen’s court with no binding legal authority) 1. Their use has indiscriminate effects; 2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives; 3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner; 4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court’s statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals. CONCLUSIONS: If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place. Are you still skeptical about the harmlessness of DU? "

" It doesn't matter what credentials a person waves like "retired health physicist", the problem in credibility is when the emperor wears no clothes. For example, viewing the KITV clip of Leuren MOret, anyone can notice the device is not a Gammascout at all! It's a Digilert! For folks who can stomach more disillusionment about Helbig check out http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=748 "

" Exactly, DU is cheaper and more plentiful than lead and needs to be disposed of on the countries of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Afganistan, blah blah blah. I would like to address Helabig's leprous attachment to his qualified Health Physicist. "it takes 7000 grams next to the gamma scout to get a reading of 80 millirems or so." Have you lost your mind? Don't listen to such foolishness everyone. This is the most rediculous claim I have ever heard. Elevated background radiation can happen just through atmospheric circulation of radioactive dust or even flying in an airplaine. Your attempts to try to attack the gamma scout is desparate. The gamma scout uses the same inert/vacuum tube technology that has been used in geiger counters for over 50 years. You obviously know very little Helabig about radiation detection. Need your expert to tell us the truth about the gamma scout, huh? Well at least you are attacking technology now and not people. This does show a little evolution in your self-actualization. Once again drop the biographical writing, its not interesting and your pentagoon paycheck is wasting taxpayer money. "

" A short blog entry, quite unscientific. "Why would they use DU" question by Helbig--because they have whopping lot of it and need to get rid of it. And because HEI's [high explosive incendiaries] were in short supply. "

" Stalking the Wild Radioactivity in Hawaii. While I have no doubt there is excess radioactivity detectable in Hawaii, I do have some serious questions about the source. In one video I watched there is a military helicopter stirring a great deal of dust some of which would logically be deposited downwind . If that dust contained radioisotopes, some of them would get redistributed—downwind. However that does not mean it is necessarily from the use of concentrated “depleted” uranium [DU] ammunition. I’m not at all convinced that a "Gamma Scout" could pinpoint that a source of excess radioactivity is precisely DU; it’s not that sophisticated. I’m going to go way out on a scientific limb and say it is my belief that the source of excess radioactivity in Hawaii is the residual fallout from the testing of nuclear bombs, especially in the Pacific Islands and in China. And that fallout would have included DU, contrary to the opinion I read recently that not much DU was included in nuclear bombs. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. It was used as a neutron in most thermonuclear [hydrogen] bombs. Tons of of it. The fallout had to include DU plus a plethora of nasty artificial radioisotopes fission products. The fetal and birth defects death records for Hawaii from 1940-1986 bear mute testimony to my theory. I'm seeking away to give a voice. Yes, I extracted these data from the US Vital Statistics for Mortality and Morbidity, along with the same data for all US states and territories. It took months. Then I correlated these data with nuclear testing records. It took months. Hawaii and Colorado yielded the most stunning data once just numbers were graphed. These graphs have not been published. They are too big to put on the internet and I have no support to do it if it were possible. It’s all still in pencil. Here I will cite one disturbing example: the US bombed Enewetok, Marshall Islands, 4 times in April and May of 1951. We don't have government records for the Marshall Islands. We do for Hawaii. Hawaii entries for deaths due to birth defects from 1951 through 1958 were not recorded in the US data, even though they were present for the years 1940-1950. The US tested in the Pacific Islands through 1958. The test ban treaty ended testing temporarily in 1959. Back to the Hawaii data: the fetal death entries WERE present for 1951-1958. The fetal death rates for Hawaii soared from 14.0 to 25.3 [per 1,000 live births] in 1968, the year following what was possibly the “dirtiest” ever nuclear test, China’s 3-stage fission-fusion-fission test [plus 3 other tests in China] in 1967 Fetal deaths? Death of a fetus at 20 or more weeks. Also frequently lethal birth defects. Data is too much to go further here. What’s written above gives a great deal to digest. Many of the radioisotopes from fallout have long half lives—they are still there to be measured. There’s a huge difference between doing science and doing journalism. I don’t have the media savvy of Moret or Nichols, however I do have more biology and physics savvy than they or Helbig do. I’ve done much other rsearch that he chooses to ignore. [note this is also a blog response to 2 recent articles in Big Island Weekly]. DU and other radioisotopes/heavy metals are bad news to living beings what ever their source. "I'm quaking in my genes knowing the mayhem men manufacture" Elaine Hunter, D.Sc. "

" I saw the Spectre Gunship video and the DU is brightly lit up as it hits all over the ground and buildings, and the Fallujah DU looks like from rayguns hitting the building and spalting out uranium sparks. Air support from A10 Warthogs is 30 mm DU and many DU bombs have been dropped on residential areas, including cluster bombs. Roger is obviously in denial of the facts. "

" The Camp Falcon debacle is well covered besides Bob Nichols. Check out Alan Roland and then google up some of the footage and the destruction reports. Who can believe that there were no casualties and the base was back to normal the next day as the military claimed? Check out the whitehot fireballs on the many videos of Camp Falcon DU cooking off, check out the black soot all over. As for the Gammascout,read Hadley Catalano's sidebar for accuracy about what the Gammascout can detect, and that includes alpha. DU is mostly alpha radiation. "

" Roger's opala is just like DU, you can never turn the pilikia off. The truth is plain for people to see. Hey Roger check out "Blowing in the Wind". It will explain it all for you and what you should be looking for. By your comments you have obviously not seen the films in question. That would seem like a good starting point before running your mouth off. For those who have actually seen the films mentioned, which is numerous people on Hawaii Island who have viewed these films, it is as Kristine said. Too bad if you are in denial of what is obvious to everyone. "

" Why would DU be used against buildings? You have not answered that question yet assert it as being true. In 2006, Capt. William Roberts, a media spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq, stated that "depleted uranium arms are not utilized by units currently deployed here in Iraq. We don't have that type of combat operation during this time." Seven months later, the U.S. stockpile at Camp Falcon caught fire. A film about Fallujah, Caught in the Crossfire, shows a wide array of DU munitions being used in buildings, not tanks. A DVD about the C-130 Spectre Gunship DU attack on a village in Afghanistan shows buildings and people in the open being attacked, not tanks. The use of DU is ongoing and broadly spread throughout the U.S. arsenal, with Stryker vehicles designed to fire it from a mobile gun system. The film about Fallujah Caught in the Crossfire does not show DU being used. It may claim so, but what is their proof. The first thing is that DU does not make sense. It kills tanks and the insurgents and Al Qaeda have no tanks or armored vehicles of any kind. The articles about Camp Falcon are by Bob Nichols who is Leuren Moret's mouthpiece. If Moret is prone to jumping to conclusions, Nichols is even more so. He is a pretend journalist who writes about only one subject DU and only from the point of view of Moret or Rokke who dictate his articles to him. There is zero evidence that the explosions at Camp Falcon were of DU munitions. There is no reason to believe that DU munitions were stockpiled there in the first place. There was no expectation of ever encountering an enemy armored force after the run on Baghdad in 2003; why bring DU munitions to Baghdad to battle imaginary foes. The C-130 gunship fires a gatling gun; how does that enable the leap to that gun firing DU? Do you know the airman who loaded the plane? The C-130 gunship does not normally employ DU and again, there are no enemy armored formations in Afghanistan so why the leap to the C-130 must be firing DU when it wasn't. Kristine, your article is not consistent. You also need to do a better job of fact checking. I gather you actually attended one of Moret's lectures and that is the way you learned of her far out claims about her daughter and being a whistleblower. I am quite sure that Moret never blew the whistle at Livermore. She worked there less than a year as a glorified lab assistant .. a Senior Scientific Technologist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing. She is also no shrinking violet and certainly would not have failed to pursue her whistleblowing case to the ultimate appeal and there is absolutely no record of Moret's having ever filed an appeal with the US Department of Labor which would have heard such an appeal. I also had close contact with Bay Area whistleblowers since I was one myself and none of those I knew at Livermore ever heard of Moret. Want to learn about me .. Google Coopers and Lybrand, Navy and TQM, Fraud or Mistake and go to DUStory http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DUStory/files Roger rwhelbig at gee mail dot com "

" Kristine, My apologies for calling you a he. Please, do write me .. Roger rwhelbig at geemail dot com "

" This at least does a fairly good job of exposing Moret as a con artist - Blaine Howard, retired formerly Certified, Health Physicist, has made a very clear case that the Gamma Scout meter used by Moret is incapable of detecting DU in air. One of his calculations shows that it would take 7000 grams of DU inches away from the meter in order to get the reading that Moret claimed. I would really like for the writer to contact me. He has some interesting side stories about Moret that I was not aware of and I have been intensely researching her, Douglas Lind Rokke, Bob Nichols and others in the anti-DU crusade because Rokke and Nichols decided to slander me all over the world. I also have the strongest belief that through allies of theirs like Mohammed Daud Miraki of Chicago, who had his non-profit fund shut down by the State of Illinois, that Moret and Rokke, etc. will result in recruiting a terrorist some day who will want to pay the US back for poisoning his country forever when the truth is that it never happened. None of the anti-DU crusaders examines the basic science or reads any of the many test reports; they only read what some anti-DU cruader has parroted from another anti-DU crusader. They are the ones on the witch hunt. Go to DUStory http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DUStory/files/ join and go to the files section - you will learn about Rokke, Moret and see why the Gamma Scout used by Moret in Hawaii does not have the ability to detect DU in air. Thanks. Roger Helbig "

" General Lee is quoted in this article, "none of my troops that were called up even handle DU." This statement really bothers me because once a DU munition is vaporized "handling" it is a mute point. Our troops are in grave danger going into areas where this weapon has been used. It gets scattered everywhere in the environment. Every helecopter landing or big truck driving by can kick up the microscopic radioactive particles and reintroduce them to the air our vets over there are breathing. For more info see www.protecthawaii.ws "

" > Reported in "The Enemy Within" (1996) by Jay > Gould, page 194: > > "The Nevada downwinders' suits were > unsuccessful. Despite winning > their case in the lower courts, the Appellate Court > ruled in favor of the AEC on > the grounds that the US government could not be > held responsible. At one > point, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs sent a > series of interrogatories > to the AEC defense counsel with the following > simple question: Who has the > responsibility for the safety and welfare of persons > and their property near > areas of possible fallout? > "The AEC answered as follows: > " 'It is the responsiblity of the heads of > families and owners of > property to protect their families and their > property from possible radioactive > fallout.'" "

" Great article! The activists I know involved with the issue of DU contamination in Hawaii mainly want two things. One: For the public at large to educate themselves on this issue. Two: Testing, a comprehensive, reliable, ongoing monitoring of radiation around all active live-fire ranges in Hawaii. We want test procedures and results to be verified by independent expert consultants and results made available to the public. On July 27 at the Outdoor Circle in Kona at 7pm, the public will have an opportunity to educate themselves on the DU issue by attending the free performance of Ten Finger 10 Toes, a play dealing with the issue of depleted uranium. For more information contact me at tenfingers10toes@protecthawaii.ws "

" In December 2006, I sent material on depleted uranium to the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir, who organized a War Crimes Conference in Kuala Lumpur in February 2007. An MD, he was so stunned by the information from the European Parliament ECRR report on low level radiation, that he asked me to invite 5 more speakers on radation and DU issues. He said "I believe it is the most important issue in the world today." Tun Dr. Mahathir is the first world leader to take this courageous stand. We must thank him and recognize that this issue is extremely important because it is global nuclear pollution affecting all living things. It will have an unknown outcome... and it cannot be good. Radiation damage to the DNA is passed on to the next 40,000 generations, reported before 1920 by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Muller. "